London, Oct. 31: Scientists have grown walnut-sized human livers and hope the technique can be used for transplantations. The research also opens the prospect of testing the safety of experimental drugs.
US scientists created the organs by sowing seeds of human cells onto scaffolds derived from animal livers. The original cells were then replaced with immature human liver cells before being fed nutrients and oxygen in a bio-reactor, the Telegraph reported.
The researchers said that after a week in the lab bio-reactor, the livers seemed to be growing and functioning like a normal human organ.
Mr Pedro Baptista from the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in the US said: “Our hope is that once these organs are transplanted, they will maintain and function.”
It could take five or more years for the technology to find its way from the lab into hospitals.